T. Siddiqui (2016) Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 3, Issue-3: 171-187
DOI: 10.3126/ijssm.v3i3.15258
Research Article
MEDIA COVERAGE OF VALENTINE’S DAY: IS MEDIA BIASED IN COVERING
THE FESTIVAL?
Taha Siddiqui
Media and Mass Communication Department, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Valentine’s Day celebration in India has been much debated and covered by the media in the last couple of years. In the year
2009, far right Hindu activist from Sri Ram Sena to Bajrang Dal were involved in beating up unmarried couples and blackening
their faces, as mark of shame for celebrating Valentine’s Day. They claimed that the festival was a “western practice” and
promotes “lust not love”. Following this other Anti- Valentine’s Day groups also expressed their views and this led to public
debate about moral policing and Indian culture. However what is interesting to note is the fact how media covered. At one side
media has played a big role in promoting it (for many reasons) and on the other hand it has also criticized it for cultural and
religious concerns.
This research tries to explore in depth how media covers the festival with commercialization, culture, religion and politics in the
backdrop. The research studies 9 newspapers of in 3 different languages, namely English, Hindi and Urdu. The study tries to
find out whether media is biased in covering the festival or is it propagating an idea to its readers. The idea of taking 3 different
languages is to draw a sharp comparison and contrast among the national and vernacular newspapers.
In order to find it, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been applied to the articles. Content analysis and Textual
analysis are the important methods used to find out the statistics and underlying meanings behind these articles.
Keywords: Valentine’s Day; media; newspapers; Hindu activist
Introduction and Background
Valentine’s Day is a festival associated with romantic love
and courtship. Though there are varying opinions and
traditions associated to the origin of Valentine’s Day, it is
believed to be named after a Christian Saint called Saint
Valentine. The day first became associated with romantic
love in the circle of Geoffery Chaucer in the middle ages,
when the tradition of courtly love flourished. (Source:
Henry Ansgar Kelly, in Chaucer and the Cult of Saint
Valentine 1986). During 5th century Rome, the festival of
Lupercalia was celebrated on 15th May. The celebration
paid homage to the Gods Faunus and Remus as well as the
twin brother Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders
of Rome. Later on this festival was associated with love,
fertility and courtship.
One school of thought believes that Saint Valentine was a
Roman priest martyred for refusing to give up Christianity.
Later, through his strong faith he healed the blind daughter
of his jailer and before his execution, sent for a farewell note
signed, “From your valentine”. Other historians believe that
saint Valentine was a temple priest, who was jailed for
defiance, in the year 270 AD, during the reign of Claudius.
King Claudius believed that marriage was a distraction for
the men in his army. He believed it made them weak. Saint
Valentine was said to have performed many secret
marriages of young lovers. When Claudius got to know
about this, Saint Valentine was executed. And in his
remembrance the day is believed to be celebrated.
Brosius (2010) in her research paper, “Contesting emotions
- Ritualizing Romantic love in Neoliberal Urban India”
writes “Valentine’s Day started as early as in the midnineteenth century in Victorian England, expanded to the
USA in the second half of the same century, and further
spread across the globe in the 20th century, mostly related to
Neoliberal economics and social change”.
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Thus there are many histories and traditions associated with
it. In the 21st century, Valentine’s Day is a day to express
love, exchange gifts and chocolates and give cards to one
another.
Celebration of Valentine’s Day in Indian Context
With liberalization and globalization, Valentine’s Day
became a day of celebration for many young Indian couples
in the early 1990’s. This phenomenon was observed by the
increasing number of Television and Radio programs and
selling of Valentine’s Day cards in Archie’s and other card
shops. Brosius (2009) observed, “Celebrated worldwide by
ritualizing – and legitimizing – romantic sentiments of two
people, Valentine’s Day in India is nevertheless a highly
contested and politicized occasion for many, both critics
and supporters”.
In the year 2008 and 2009, celebration of Valentine’s Day
was considered as “cultural contamination” from the West
and as something against “Indian culture and tradition”. The
Hindu and Muslim traditionalists considered Valentine’s
Day a threat to their culture and tradition. Political parties
like Shiv Sena and Sangh Parivar have asked their followers
to shun the holiday because it is “alien to Indian Culture”.
Despite these obstacles, Valentine's Day is becoming
increasingly popular in India. However, leftist and liberal
critiques of Valentine's Day remain strong in India.
Valentine's Day has been strongly criticized from
a postcolonial perspective by intellectuals from the Indian
left. Many studies have shown that Valentine’s Day
promotes income inequality in India and aids in creation of
pseudo westernized middle class, creating gap between the
rich and poor. (Mankekar, Purnima, ‘Screening, Culture,
Viewing Politics’, 1999). They also criticize mainstream
media attacks on Indians opposed to Valentine’s Day
agenda.
Valentine’s Day and Print Media
Media privatization, commercial growth and cultural
heterogeneity have brought many changing patterns in the
way romantic love is perceived now. In the year 2009, the
Pink Chaddi Campaign (This campaign was started by the
‘Consortium of Pub going’, ‘Loose and Forward Women’
against the protesters of Valentine’s Day namely political
parties like Shiv Sena and Baj Rang Dal ) brought a new
wave of change in the way, Valentine’s Day was perceived
in India. It was through television, blogs and print media
that the issue added fervor to the movement. There were
many such similar incidents in favor and against
Valentine’s Day, that were covered differently by different
mediums.
This research particularly studies the media coverage of
Valentine’s Day. One would observe that every year,
Valentine’s Day celebration is covered in the print media,
using special features, supplements, news articles, and loads
of advertisements. Each of these has a purpose to achieve or
a message to convey to its reader. Why it is that print media
is so interested in covering the festival? This research paper
basically focuses on the role of print media, the changing
patterns and the motives with which an article is published
in context to Valentine’s Day. Further, the study explores
how Indian newspapers of three different languages, have
covered the same issue in strikingly different manner. The
various trends would be discussed later in the chapters.
Review of Literature
Valentine’s Day is a subject which has been explored by
many historians, anthropologist and other research scholars.
The festival is believed to have originated in the West but
now it is celebrated all over the world. It is interesting to
note how a global festival is understood, interpreted, and
celebrated in a country like India which is full of cultural
and religious diversity. Valentine’s Day is basically
associated with the idea of romantic love. However, in
India, it has many other meanings and opinions attached to
it, which are worth exploring. The mass media often portray
myriad views and ideologies of the readers and this study
explores the contested meanings attached to this day.
While several studies have focused on Valentine’s Day, a
review of literature did not yield any works on the media
coverage of this day in the Indian context. This study will
explore Indian media coverage of Valentine’s Day by
content analyzing newspapers of three different languages,
namely Hindi, Urdu and English. In order to have a better
understanding of Valentine’s Day, and the media coverage
it has received, the following section offers an account of
studies conducted in other countries. Here are some of the
common themes which are relevant to this study.
Local Treatment of a Global Festival
Valentine’s Day is a festival that originated in the West and
has become widely popular in the last decade. In the Indian
scenario, it is observed that with the onset of globalization
and liberalization in the 1990s, this festival became more
popular as people became more open in discussing issues
such as relationship, sexuality and romantic love. The
whole concept of Valentine’s Day began to be explored
through different media like Archie’s cards, advertisements,
radio, print media and television.
Fair (2004) in her study, “’Me Do Wu,’ My Val: The
Creation of Valentine's Day in Accra, Ghana,” explores the
influence of African media in embracing an element of
globally circulating mass culture, Valentine’s Day, in
Accra, Ghana. In her research, she studied three different
media including radio, television and the print media. Her
study explores the changing patterns of mass value culture
of urban Africa. She tries to find out, how a global element
like Valentine’s Day, has been accepted by the society at a
local level, that is, people celebrate it in local ways that are
understood only by them.
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According to her study, media companies draw the attention
of people and advertisers to radio and television channels,
by identifying the festival as worldly and modern. The study
shows the gradual seeping in of modern ideas of romantic
love, and opens opportunities for discourse on an otherwise
difficult topic like love and sex.
She points out that even in Western countries many believe
that it is a festival manufactured by the greeting card
industry. But today in United States, Canada, Europe and
Australia, the day is celebrated as a card and gift sharing
day. In the year 2000, United States alone spent $3.6 billion
to celebrate Valentine’s Day (Jan Scott 2001).
Flair (2004) observes that the celebration of Valentine’s
Day works for the elite in Ghana because it indicates buying
power, associates a person with modern ideas of love and
open opportunities for discourse on difficult subjects like
sexual behavior and romantic love. A festival that is
borrowed from abroad is altered to fit the local atmosphere.
Flair (2004) further argues: “Valentine's Day is part of a
complex set of imported and indigenous lifestyle markers
that are used increasingly in urban Africa by individuals and
social groups to construct identities as older and more
traditional cultural norms and forms loosen their hold.”
The methodology that she used involved, in depth
interviews, surveys, small group discussions and a study of
four newspapers, radio stations and advertisements.
However, this study is focused on the Indian print media
alone. The goal of this study is to show how Indian
newspapers, which are published in different languages,
frame the festival in different ways. This study will delve in
depth into meaning construction of the Valentine’s Day
festival by Hindi, Urdu and English dailies in India.
In another study done by Christiane Brosius (2012) titled
“Love in the Age of Valentine and Pink Underwear: Media
and Politics of Intimacy in South Asia,” the author explains
how a global festival seeps into the local culture through
local mediums thus shaping different opinions on the
festival. The opening lines of her study read “The flow of
transcultural images and media in times of contemporary
globalization does not mean that we must anticipate a
symmetrical and identical diffusion and reception”
(Brosius, 2009).
Here, she clearly points that the holiday, in spite of being a
global festival is not celebrated in a similar fashion all over
the world. She has tried to explore the subject of love
through images and media. And Valntine’s Day is an
important festival where such patterns can be located and
deconstructed. Brosius (2009) points out that even though
the festival has taken a global appeal, the patterns are “more
complicated” and at times “contradictory” in the South
Asian context.
In the very introduction, she examines how a globalised
notion of love (Valentine’s Day) circulates, with the help of
images and media, how it changes speed, quality, and routes
over time.
Different treatment of Valentine’s Day by different media
As mentioned earlier, Valentine’s Day began to be
celebrated by Indians belonging to different class, age and
cultural backgrounds even as liberalization and
commercialization introduced many social changes. It no
longer remained a festival of the elite class.
Brosius (2009), argues that “Valentine’s Day greeting cards
have substantially come to shape relations and practices,
enabled to think, and experience, new emotions.
Valentine’s Day and its ritualized paraphernalia contributed
to the aesthetic dimension of life style in urban
environments. Most of all, it helped shape the idea that one
has to ‘work’ to make love work; i.e. To be – and stay - in
love.”
She conducted an in depth study of the ways in which
greeting cards serve as an important medium to generate a
particular emotion or express uncomfortable feelings of
romantic love which otherwise is difficult to convey. She
also points out that these cards may also generate the desire
to be in love. She writes, “Valentine’s Day greeting cards
have substantially come to shape relations and practices,
enabled to think, and experience, new emotions.”
Although the current study focuses on the coverage of
Valentine’s Day in newspapers alone, it also tries to analyze
the gamut of messages that newspapers convey to their
readers at large that are contrasting in nature. Further, this
study will also attempt to find out why such a pattern exists
and what a particular newspaper tries to achieve by doing
that.
In another study titled “Contesting Emotions. Ritualizing
Romantic Love in Neoliberal Urban India,” Brosius (2010)
discusses the portrayal of love and Valentine’s Day through
different mediums like cards, Indian cinema and public
places. She points that, “Indian Valentine’s Day cards are a
part and parcel of a dating culture, of new urban sites of
consumption and leisure, and of an oscillating movement of
youth between public and private. As far as V-Day cards are
concerned, it is ‘easier’ and seen to be more sophisticated to
express love in English.” She points out that ‘new media’
help cultivate new emotions and feelings. The various
media become “care takers” and “teachers” of emotions.
Brosius (2010) in her paper has studied various kinds of
cards and images that exist in public sphere. She points out
that cards in English are far more expressive than in any
other language. A similar comparison can be drawn
between English, Hindi and Urdu newspapers.
This study explores similar frames and meanings of
Valentine’s Day. Newspapers of three languages were
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chosen as they offer a wide scope to explore the different
sections of society in terms of class, religion and culture.
class. This lead to a debate about moral policing and Indian
tradition.
Valentine’s Day: Social and Political Meanings
Flair (2004) writes that media depictions of Valentine's Day
and its various social and political meanings were observed
through different newspapers in the National Archives, the
contemporary press, and radio and television programming
and advertisements aired in 2002. Flair (2004) further points
out that, “Social-sexual tensions permeate popular culture
as well. Popular news-paper advice columns in the Mirrora
and the Spectator help readers navigate sticky relationship
problems”. (P. 39)
Hereby, one clearly observes the role of media, be it
television or print when it comes to shaping people’s
opinion or propagating an idea. The role of media is critical
in this case as it heats up the emotions of public, adding fuel
to the fire.
In her study, she discovered different opinions on
Valentine’s Day. She writes:
“The strongest objections to Valentine’s Day
are moral. The Reverend Apostle Kwamena
Ahinful opined in the Mirror: ‘ [Val Day] is
simply the indulgence of sensual pleasure or
lusty love, and it is this which greatly peeves
religious leaders who consider that
Valentine's Day has veered off its divine love
course into what is morally demeaning,
erotic, and lewd!’ (Feb. 15, 1997). He
continued on the same theme the following
year: ‘Once again, the Valentine feast has
come off with its lovers day preachments. And
that is today, February 14. But if you ask me
what is this Valentine for? I won't hesitate to
answer that it is for sheer encouragement of
people to drink and indulge in boozing
binges, erotic pleasures, and prurient
sexuality. That's the long and short of this
Valentine which is feverishly gripping our
society. Nothing more’ (Mirror, Feb. 14,
1998)” (Flair, 2004, p. 46).
Brosius (2009) talks about the Indian society and observes:
that Valentine’s Day has become a ‘ritual of self-display
and self-creation’ for youngsters and married couples. With
the celebration of ‘being in love’, the festival also
underlines the pleasure of dating and dining, of
consumption and public declaration of emotions as
‘pleasure’. Here, she rightly points out that Valentine’s Day
in India is highly contested and political.
In the year 2009, few party members of the Hindu
nationalists ‘Sri Ram Sena’ attacked a lounge bar Amnesia
in Mangalore. They beat up many young couples, especially
women, arguing that those women were violating the Indian
culture and tradition. The situation got so worse that two
women had to be hospitalized. Interestingly all of this was
covered by media, either by chance or plan. The whole
incident was shown on various news channels adding more
hatred and rise of sentiments among the Indian Middle
After that incident, Promod Muthalik, Shiv Sena leader, was
arrested for alleged acts of violence, but he continued with
the agenda of moral policing and gave speeches, which the
mainstream media covered differently. Some media
covered it in depth; some covered only one side of the story,
while others didn’t cover at all. This study will illuminate
similar comparisons in newspaper coverage of Valentine’s
Day 2010.
Brosius (2009) makes an important observation in this
context: “The use of media as a threatening tool of exposure
in an increasingly media-savvy and “reality TV” oriented
urban society is to be taken seriously. Muthalik referred to
Valentine’s Day as a “Christian” festival and demanded that
it to be celebrated in churches rather than “in public”.
What is interesting to note here and link with Valenine’s
Day is the fact that how culture, tradition, gender, sexuality
and religion are closely entwined. Pulling even one of these
strings has far reaching consequences. And the chemistry
that exists among the above elements is something that
needs to be studied.
She further explains how this issue was not just highlighted
in television or print media but also in other online public
sphere like Facebook (social networking website) and
blogs. The Pink Chaddi campaign and the public outrage
were reflected through these mediums.
Somini Sengupta (2002) article titled “Bombay Journal; Oh,
the Heartache! They Want Cupid Banished” explores the
reasons why political parties are setting an agenda against
Valentine’s Day. She quotes one of the leaders of Shiv Sena
who says, “Drinking, dancing. Drinking, dancing. These
two D’s are destroying us. If our boys go and demonstrate
in front of those shops, we cannot stop them. We have not
asked them to demonstrate, but they might do.”
Sengupta (2002) observes that, Hindu fundamentalist
political parties like the Shiv Sena are a very powerful force
in the city and the state government. It sees Cupid, the
symbol of love, as the very embodiment of Western Culture.
Sengupta (2002) further points out:
“What is certain is that their crusade against Cupid is
merely the latest sign of a creeping Puritanism that aims to
make this India metropolis less freewheeling. The passion
over Feb. 14 is just the latest effort by the Shiv Sena, a
coalition partner in the national government led by the
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Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, to weigh in on
Bombay's cultural life.”
During the late colonial North India, the incidents of
abduction, ill-treatment and harassment was very recurrent.
One thing that is common among all these researches is that
they all bring out the political side of the whole story. Flair
and Brosius have both pointed out that the festival has
become highly politicized in the last decade. In my research
I would try to explore how in India, the holiday has become
major peg for political and religious issue and has brought
time and again in the newspapers belonging to different
languages.
Gupta (2002) tries to examine how Hindu columnists wrote
about the ill-treatment and abduction of Hindu women by
Muslim men. These articles were very communal in tone.
They were one sided and many a times they lacked
objectivity and seemed too general in tone. Interestingly
most of these newspapers were owned by Hindus and so
they came up with such articles.
Commercialization of the festival
An article published in United Press International
(UPI.com) titled, “Nations say Valentine’s too
commercialized” in February 2011, points out that
Valentine’s Day has been commercialized in various
countries like China and America. The Research with
Survey Sampling International indicates that 50% of the
Chinese and 42% of the people in United States say that
they do not plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day, while in other
countries; most people are planning no celebration. The
findings are based on a study of more than 5000 adults
drawn, from SSI’s online panels from the countries: United
States, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, New
Zealand and Singapore. The author writes, “In the United
States, 52 percent say they plan to give gifts and 50 percent
say they plan to go out to dinner. Fifty-seven percent of U.S.
consumers say they plan to give a present, but 67 percent
say they expect to receive a present in return, the survey
says”.
Fair (2004) also observes that some Ghanians regret the
commercialization of the holiday, the cost of gift, and the
grossness of promotions. Flair writes, “Val Day in Accra
would be a far lesser holiday if it were not for radio and
television promotion. Picked up from media promotion
handbooks produced in the United States, Valentine's Day
came to Accra prepackaged in a rarefied state of hype.
If one talks about India, Valentine’s Day celebrations are
not a new phenomenon. The day is not just celebrated
among lovers, but also among friends, family members and
relatives. One would observe that commercialization and
consumerism is growing with new products in the market.
Weeks before Valentine’s Day, the preparation gets started
and media plays an important role in promoting it.
Criticism of the festival
Charu Gupta (2002) in her study titled “(Im) possible Love
and Sexual Pleasure in Late-Colonial North India” explores
how unconventional love was expressed in late colonial
north India, especially Uttar Pradesh, in literary genres,
newspapers and in actual practices. It probes the portrayal
of Hindu publicists, mainly of conventional love, inter
religious romance and elopement. This was covered in
detail in various newspapers and some popular novels.
The above mentioned research just touches upon the issue
of Valentine’s Day but does not study it in depth. The
research explores the idea of unconventional love, and how
it has been covered in literary genres and contemporary
newspaper.
Westernisation, Culturalism, Nationalism
An article in The Pioneer newspaper titled “Liberty is not
Libertinism” by Kanchan Gupta published on April 7, 2011,
where the author argues that the idea of protesting against
Valentine’s Day should not be considered as negative or
something conservative. He doesn’t justify the Shiv Sena,
nor does he justify their actions. Gupta questions, “Who is
to tell The Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward
Women, and their guardian angel Renuka Choudhury, that
a vegetarian and a teetotaler, whether a man or a woman,
who finds ‘pub culture’ abhorrent and distasteful, or those
who reject conspicuous consumption since it clashes with
their middle class values, can also be ‘forward’ and
‘modern’ in their personal lives?”
Here, Gupta in his article doesn’t support the protesters of
Valentine’s Day but at the same time doesn’t say anything
against it. It is interesting to note how each of these writers
have different understanding and notion of freedom of
expression and lifestyle. He tries to bring in Social
reformers like Raja Rammohan Rai and Ishawar Chandra
Vidyasagar saying that these were the people who brought
drastic change in society like women emancipation and
widow remarriage, without abandoning culture and
tradition. The point here to be noted is that how writers in
print media represent different notions of ‘modernism and
freedom’ when it comes to Valentine’s Day. Culture and
Indian tradition is an important backdrop among many such
articles.
If one sees the world’s scenario then, Valentine’s Day is
not appreciated worldwide: it was banned in several
countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, claiming that it brings
along westernisation or Christianisation as its temptations.
The regional Hindu chauvinist party Shiv Sena in Mumbai
identified Valentine’s Day with ‘prostitution day’, vulgar,
shameless and opposed to Indian culture. They believe that
Valentine's Day is turning the youth away from the Indian
culture, traditions and values.
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This a trend that one notices in India, however, the fact that
print media covers it in depth or not at all, ‘how’ it covers
it, with what context and opinions, is something that needs
to be studied.
Based on the above review of literature and keeping the
goals of this study in mind, the following research questions
were formulated:
Research Questions


Are English, Hindi and Urdu newspapers in India
biased while covering Valentine’s Day?
Is media trying to propagate an idea or an opinion
to its reader regarding Valentine’s Day?
Hypothesis
English, Hindi and Urdu newspapers in India are biased
while covering Valentine’s Day.
The English newspapers have commercialized it. The Hindi
newspapers have neutral approach to it, while Urdu
newspapers are highly critical of it.
categories that are made are such that it becomes relevant to
the hypothesis of the research.
It is “a systematic, replicable technique for compressing
many words of text into fewer content categories based on
explicit rules of coding” (Stemler 2001). It often involves
building and applying a “concept dictionary” or fixed
vocabulary of terms on the basis of which words are
extracted from the textual data for concording or statistical
computation.
Quantitative means simply the recording of numerical
values or the number of times a particular content occurs.
Manifest content means the apparent content, which means
that content must be coded as it appears rather than as the
content analyst feels it is intended.
According to Berelson, following are the possible uses of
content analysis




The number of articles published on Valentine’s Day,
drastically vary in English, Hindi, and Urdu newspapers.
English newspapers cover the maximum while Urdu
newspapers have had the least the number of articles.
Methodology of the Research
This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods
including both content analysis and textual analysis to get a
more detailed picture of newspaper coverage of Valentine’s
Day festivities.
Content Analysis
According to Bernard Belson , Content Analysis can be
shortly defined as “a research technique for the objective,
systematic, and quantitative description of the manifest
content of communication” ( Berelson, 1974)
Here “objectitvity” is achieved by making different
categories for the data in such a manner that even if
someone else applies different data to it, the person would
get his/her own the content analysis. Therefore, the results
depend on the method and not the analyst.
“Systematic means” means that a particular set of methods
is applied to all content that is to be analysed and the
Reveal international difference in communication
content
Spot the existence of propaganda
Identifying the intentions of a particular group.
Analysing the attitudinal and behavioral
responses to communications.
Qualitative Analysis
According to Wimmer and Dominick (2003), qualitative
analysis is a non-quantitative type of analysis which is
aimed at finding out the quality of a particular phenomenon
Textual Analysis
This include: semiotics, rhetorical analysis, ideological
analysis, and psychoanalytic approaches, among many
others. These types of analysis seek to get beneath the
surface (denotative) meanings and examine more implicit
(connotative) social meanings.
Selection of Samples
This research tries to draw a comparison as to how
differently the three print media (English, Hindi and Urdu
newspapers) covered news on Valentine’s Day in the year
2010. For this purpose I chose 9 newspapers, listed in Table
1.
Table 1: List of newspapers studied during the present investigation
ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS
HINDI NEWSPAPERS
URDU NEWSPAPERS
1. THE TIMES OF INDIA
1. RASHTRIYA SAHARA
1. RASHTRIYA SAHARA
2. THE HINDUSTAN TIMES
2. NAVBHARAT TIMES
2. SAHAFAT
3. INDIAN EXPRESS
3. HINDUSTAN
3. AWAAM
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Therefore a total of 9 newspapers were selected. Using,
random sampling method, I used 3 newspapers from each
languages, that come under the top ten newspapers in India,
according to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS). The fact
that these newspapers were circulated in New Delhi was
also kept in mind.
All the above mentioned 3 English language newspapers i.e.
The Times of India, The Hindustan Times and Indian
Express, were available online. Hindi and Urdu
newspaper’s past one year archive was impossible to access.
Hindi newspapers, namely, Rashtriya Sahara, Navbharat
Times, and Hindustan, were accessed from their respective
libraries. The Urdu newspaper Rashtriya Sahara was
accessed through the library while, the other two Sahafat
and Awam articles were taken through my own collection.
Why the Three Languages?
This research purposefully chose these three languages
because it aims English, Hindi and Urdu are the major
spoken languages in India. The Hindi and English
newspapers have the maximum readership while Urdu
hasn’t. All of them have a different target audience but
completely different approach towards the festival. It is
interesting to note that local language newspapers play an
important role in shaping the trend in society. Print media
through different languages has the potential of shaping up
a perspective among its readers. The three languages are
also symbolic of the national and the local print media and
draw a sharp comparison in spite of being published in the
same city.
Why These Newspapers?
I choose these newspapers in order to draw a comparison
between the national dailies and the local dailies. How a
particular global phenomenon like Valentine’s Day is being
addressed in different manner by three different languages.
The newspapers were also chosen on the basis of
availability and accessibility. All the English newspapers
were available online. The Hindi newspapers were difficult
to access and had to be taken from the respective media
libraries. Same was the case with Urdu newspapers. I was
particularly interested in Urdu newspapers as it targets to
only one type of readers, particularly Muslims for that
matter. It brought in the perspective of a Muslim majority
from a media’s point of view. And how far is that true in
reality, is something that needs to be addressed.
Applied Methodologies
The content analysis was done by coding all the data into
different categories so that comparison and contrasting
could be done easily. The same coding was applied to all
160 articles. The categories were further divided into
different sub categories. This adds more credibility and
objectivity to the research. The research was basically
analytical, because different relationships were observed
and studied. There were various categories. Some
categories like date, word count, dateline, number of photos
etc were able to bring out the factual analysis of the data.
While categories like ‘tone of the story’ or ‘type of source’
or ‘primary and secondary topic’, brought more in depth
findings and details. Following are the categories and subcategories. This research uses both quantitative and
qualitative content analysis methods.
Period of Research
The period of research was the January and February. The
reason being, that this is the only time when the newspapers
publish articles on Valentine’s Day. Of course, the
maximum articles were published on the day of Valentines
Day, one day before it and one day after it.
For the same reason, all the articles that were published on
Valentine’s Day are taken as sample for textual analysis.
Data Analysis
Fig. 1: Out of 76 English articles, 33 of them have exclusive
byline
The result shows that 43% of a total of 76 articles carried
exclusive byline stories. This means that 57% of the article
that carried no byline either carried the name of the agency
from which the article was taken or read ‘special
correspondent (Fig. 1). Interestingly most of these articles
(with no byline) were commercial in their opinion. They
talked about a particular gift shop or a restaurant, which
seemed more like a ‘paid news’ rather than an objective
approach towards it. Since majority of the articles in English
are from the ‘Times of India’, most of them don’t carry an
exclusive byline, thus helping in supporting the hypothesis.
Secondly the quality of both these types of news articles,
differ a lot in terms of the way they have dealt with
Valentine’s Day. These two aspects have later been
discussed with illustration, in the ‘Discussion’ section of the
research. This factor helps and supports the hypothesis of
my research.
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In case of Hindi news articles, the trend seems to change, as
67% of them carry no byline. However, the point to be noted
here is that, the trend that is noticed in English articles is not
the same here. In fact it is the other way round. Most of
these articles talk about relationships only (Fig. 2). There
were very few articles that dealt with entertainment or
politics. The articles seem to be more balanced in their
approach. This fact helps in supporting the hypothesis of my
research.
research and has later been discussed in detail with
illustrations.
Fig. 4: Various categories in 76 English articles
Fig. 2: Out of 61 articles Hindi articles, 20 have exclusive
byline.
Fig. 3: Out of 22 Urdu Articles, 7 articles have exclusive
byline.
In case of Urdu articles, 69% of the articles carried an
exclusive byline (Fig. 3). There can be various reasons for
the same. The primary reason being, that the readership of
these newspapers is not very high as compared to Hindi and
English newspapers. Secondly, since the readership is not
good, perhaps there is no particular agency form which they
take their news and that is why these articles are mainly
written by freelance journalist. Most of these articles are
highly opinionated and critical in their approach towards the
festival. This strongly supports the hypothesis of my
The primary topic in most of the English newspaper articles
was relationship, which was 32%. The other important
topics were entertainment (25%) and business (22%) (Fig
4). Not a single article criticized the concept of Valentine’s
Day, while Hindi and Urdu newspapers do. It is interesting
to note that, these articles started with the ‘relationship’, but
the topic didn’t last long. The second paragraph would be
about completely different aspect like bollywood or
commercial side of the story. This has been explained with
illustrations, in the Discussion section, and helps in
supporting the hypothesis of my research.
Fig. 5: Various Categories in 61 Hindi articles
Almost of half of the articles in the Hindi newspapers had
the primary topic as relationships (46%). This fact has also
been observed in the Exclusive byline section. There are
very few articles that transgress into another topic like
business or entertainment, but majority of them carry the
same topic (relationship) throughout. While other primary
topics were entertainment (18%) and politics (11%). Here
the business angle constitutes just 7% of the total articles
unlike the English articles that constitutes 22% of all the
articles. Only 3 % of the articles criticized the concept of
Valentine’s Day unlike English (0%) and Urdu (33%) (Fig.
5). The following facts have been further explained with
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examples from the text of the story. This in many ways
helps in supporting the hypothesis of my research.
Interestingly food, wine and restaurants were the main
elements of articles under entertainment category. This
would be explained with citations and illustrations in the
later chapters.
Fig. 6: Various Categories in Urdu Articles
The primary topics in case of Urdu articles is divided into
three major categories namely –
Criticism of Valentine’s Day- 33%
Entertainment- 30%
Politics- 22%
This is one of the major findings of my research. 33% of the
articles had the primary topic as ‘criticism’ and 100% of
these articles didn’t have a secondary topic. However, there
are other topics like entertainment and politics that have
also been dealt. It is interesting to note that only 3% of the
Urdu articles talked about relationships, which constitute
the primary topic in English and Hindi articles. Surprisingly
none of the articles in the English newspapers have
criticized the concept of Valentine’s Day and only 3% of
the Hindi articles have done so (Fig. 6). These findings have
been explained in the Discussion section of the research.
They are helpful in supporting the hypothesis of my
research.
Fig. 8: Types of articles in Hindi
In Hindi articles, 61% of the articles were hard core news.
Though most of these news were Delhi based, but Nav
bharat Times published many news from different parts of
the country (Fig. 8). There was news about honour killing
in various parts of the country. Other news stories dealt with
issues like, the opinion of older generation about
Valentine’s Day, or some case studies of couples who
decided to get married on their own and didn’t follow the
traditional method, like arrange marriage or so. Other news
items were stories about the protest by Bajrang Dal or Shiv
Sena. Some news told about different places in Delhi, where
a couple could hang out. Some touched upon the security
issues as well. This finding has been further discussed in the
Discussion section of the research. It helps in supporting the
hypothesis of my research.
Fig. 9: Types of articles in Urdu
Fig 7: Types of articles in English
Fig. 7 shows 35% of all the articles fall into the category of
entertainment where they mostly deal with celebrities and
bollywood stars. Rest fall in the categories of news (32%),
feature (17%), business (14%) and editorial (2%).
Most of the articles in Urdu newspapers fall in the category
of News. This constitutes 68% of the articles. While other
articles fall in the category of Feature (23%) and Editorial
(9%) (Fig. 9). The news was mainly about the criticism of
Valentine’s Day and the repercussions of celebrating this
day. Others had a balanced point of view towards the
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festival. Interestingly, 9% of all the articles in Urdu were in
the editorial section which is nil in the case of English and
Hindi newspapers. The reasons and content of these articles
would be dealt in detail with illustrations in the Discussion
section of the research paper.
Most of the Urdu articles were short and usually placed in
between other stories as sub stories. While there were some
articles that were there in the editorial section and were
more than 400 words (Fig 12).
Fig 10: Word count in English newspapers
Fig. 13: Tone of article- English
It is evident from Fig.10 that 53% of the articles in the
English were more than 400 words. This shows that the
amount of coverage given to Valentine’s Day is far more
than in Hindi or English Newspapers. This helps in
supporting the hypothesis of my research.
This is one of the most important finding of my research.
53% of the articles carried an overall positive tone in the
story. It mostly talked about how to celebrate the day, what
all things to do, what are the places to go and so on. Though
most of them touched upon the commercial side of it. While
35% of them were neutral and balanced in their tone. Only
12% of them had a negative tone (Fig. 13). The stories that
carried negative tone, usually criticized the commercial side
of it. All these factors have been dealt in detail with
illustrations in the Discussion section of the research. This
being the most important finding, along with other sub
finding would help in supporting the prime hypothesis of
my research.
Fig 11: Word count in Hindi newspapers
Fig. 11 shows that only 43% of the articles are more than
400 words which is lesser in percentage as compared to
English articles.
Fig. 14: Tone of the story in Hindi
Fig 12: Word count in Urdu newspapers
The tone of the story in Hindi newspapers is far more
balanced in their approach as in contrast to English and
Urdu. 41% of them were positive in tone, 33% neutral, and
26% negative. Even the 26% that are categorized as
negative are dealing with issues like commercialization,
protests, and political colour to the whole festival (Fig. 14).
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They don’t openly oppose it and at the same time are also
not against it. This finding is helpful in the supporting the
hypothesis of my research. The finding would further be
illustrated with other examples.
Most of their sources were youth (25%) and businessmen
(19%). While major chunk of it fall into the category of
other (36%). The doctors, counselors, and historians etc.
Those stories that were purely commercial had quotes from
the businessman, talking about the sale of a particular item
during Valentine’s Day (Fig. 15).
Fig. 14: Tone of the story in Urdu
It is evident from the Fig. 14 that 59% of the articles carried
a negative tone. Few articles openly criticized the concept
of Valentine’s Day and the rest conveyed a similar message
by covering issues pertaining to protests, and warnings
issued by Hindu and Muslim political and religious leaders,
respectively. Only 14% of the articles were moderate in
nature. While 27% read positively. These 27% usually
talked about this festival as a day of celebration for not just
couples but also among kids, friends and family members.
They also dealt with bollywood stars. Some of these articles
were fictious stories on romance and love, which
surprisingly wasn’t there in other English and Hindi
newspapers. It is important to note that the newspapers like
Awam and Sahafat, carried a special editorial column on
Valentine’s Day and explored all the aspects of it. The same
has not been done by English or Hindi newspapers. Both
these newspapers are local in nature and reflect on various
other issues. This would be discussed with examples in the
Discussion section of the research. This being the major
finding supports the hypothesis of my research.
Fig. 16: Sources in Hindi articles
Most of the sources in Hindi articles fall into the category
of ‘others’. Those articles that had no quotes also fall into
the category of ‘other’. It also includes people like doctor,
historians, social worker etc. Other sources include youth
(22%), celebrity (10%), businessmen (7%), politician (4%)
and police (2%) (Fig. 16).
Fig. 17: Sources in Urdu articles
In case of Urdu Articles, 64% of the articles had no quotes.
Rest of the quotes was either from a political leader (19%)
or religious leader (15%). This finding helps in supporting
the hypothesis of my research. And has been explained later
in the paper (Fig. 17).
Textual Analysis
Fig. 15: Sources in English articles
Much has been debated about Valentine’s Day and its rising
popularity among the masses in the subcontinent. A careful
analysis of how newspapers published in the three major
Indian languages namely, Hindi, Urdu n English, treat such
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a popular event is an opportunity for us to understand such
differences. For the purpose of analyzing these articles, all
the articles published on 14th February 2010 were examined.
There were a total of 71 articles in all the three newspapers.
In the three English newspapers there were a total of 28
articles published on Valentine’s Day. In the three Hindi
Newspapers, there were 29 articles published and in the
three Urdu newspapers there were just 14 articles. The
following themes were identified during a textual analysis
of the articles.
A commercialized festival: An opportunity for
businesspersons and entrepreneurs
A textual analysis of the articles shows that popular English
and Hindi newspapers have stayed clear from critiquing the
“event” in any way. In newspapers such as The Times of
India, the kind of news coverage is highly supportive and
the paper takes on the role of a promoter rather than a
neutral observer. This is understandable as in these times of
increased competition where competition is tough, it is
simple business sense to shift focus from serious journalism
to stories that sell and rake in more business. Valentine’s
Day is one such big opportunity. Farmer’s suicide is not.
No wonder apart from the kind of support the event has
enjoyed in the articles of the popular newspapers (The
Times of India, Hindustan Times) ample ad space too is
dedicated in promoting the Day. The goal is clear: Keep the
youth engaged, tell them what’s in and what’s not, and thus
get more business for the paper. The market clearly dictates
the terms here.
For example, in an article titled “Love Bite” published in
The Indian Express by Prabhjot Sohal, the author
enumerates what is special for couples at hubs like Khan
Market and Basant Lok. He arouses interest amongst the
readers by describing interesting food items and romantic
places. The subtitle “feel the love, after your meal” sets the
tone of what’s to follow. Words used in the article include
“libido enhancing foods,” “infused with aphrodisiac
potions,” “love concoctions” (Sohal, 2010). The tone and
choice of words draw attention of the reader and arouse a
sense of desire among them.
What follows is a list of eating outlets and their special
offers for the day accompanied by price tags. The author
even takes care to pinpoint the geographical location of one
of the restaurants, Sartoria, “situated right next door to
Kvlin” just in case the reader misses the point. So the focus
of the story is eating out and having fun on Valentine’s Day.
The title of the article suggests that food and love go hand
in hand and celebrating Valentine’s Day without it would
be boring.
Another article published in The Times of India titled,
“Time to Indulge” brings out a flat one-dimensional
perspective of a company and what its promoters have to
offer. The article featured in the most highly circulated
English language newspaper is talking about one of the
many escapades that companies and business enterprises
unfailingly launch to leverage the high demand of a unique
experience this day. This article reads more like an
advertisement than a feature story. It is replete with
information about the company, the packages it offers, the
cost and duration, etc. The language, the choice of words
such as “half-hour sojourn in the skies..”, “joyride”,
“romancing the sky, one-hour experience”, “shared thrill of
a balloon flight” create interesting visuals in the reader’s
mind.
Another article in The Times of India, titled, “Say It With
Flowers” by Anirvan Ghosh explores the business of
flowers on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. Even as India
as a nation debates/struggles with the ideology of “To
celebrate or not to celebrate” Valentine’s Day the author
chooses to showcase another face of progressive India
which has moved beyond the mundane - The rise of an
Indian entrepreneur as the largest producer of cut roses in
the world.
By highlighting the life of a successful entrepreneur who
has carved a niche for himself globally, the author expresses
optimism that the scenario in the subcontinent is changing
for the better. The opening line of the article expresses this
hope and support for a more tolerant society, “The world’s
largest producer of cut roses hopes that love will conquer
intolerance.” Voicing a semi appeal through the world’s
largest producer of cut roses, “Ramakrishna Karuturi,
founder and MD of Karuturi Global, expects most Indians
to defy threats of groups like Sri Ram Sene (Muthaliks ) this
Valentine and gift roses to their loved ones.”
However, not many articles published in the Hindi
newspapers took such a perspective. In the ‘Hindustan’,
there was an articles published, titled, “All is there, but
flowers are on top” talks about the high sale of flowers on
the occasion of Valentine’s Day. The article is short. It does
not promote any particular outlet or florist shop.
It would be interesting to note that there was only one news
article among the Urdu newspapers which talked about the
commercialized side of the festival. The article, titled,
“Business of Love Reached 1 Crore Rupees” talked about
the increase in sale of the flowers. The title and the tone of
the story are negative in tone and perhaps portray
Valentine’s Day as a day of making business. It should be
noted that among all the articles, the commercial angle was
mostly prevalent among the English Newspapers and lacked
in Hindi and was negligible, in Urdu newspapers.
Explicitness and openness on romantic relationships,
intimacy and sexual behavior
English print media coverage of Valentine’s Day also
included stories on intimacy, romantic relationships and
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sexual behavior among the youth. While Hindi media did
not give much coverage to such issues, Urdu newspapers
completely avoided such topics.
One such article titled, “Demand Shoots Up by 10 to 20
percent,” published in The Times of India is worth
discussing here. The article is referring to the sale of
condoms and shows a bolder face of the media in a
relatively conservative society. The article states: “the
demand for condoms and contraceptive pills also rises in
this season of romance.” The author clearly suggests that
more and more young couples prefer getting physically
intimate this season. Hence suggesting that the perception
of Valentines in the cities is restricted not to just mushy
innocent love and romancing anymore but is also perceived
as an opportunity for a far intimate expression of their love.
The article delves into further details: “Men and women are
slowly becoming comfortable with the use of condoms and
don’t mind experimenting with flavoured, lubricated or
dotted ones.” Although the author, towards the end of the
article, hints that physical intimacy amongst youngsters
(read as pre-marital) is still not acceptable and remains a
hushed affair, the statistics and the statements made in the
article emphasise that people are fast shedding their
inhibitions.
Criticism against the festival on ethical, moral and
nationalistic grounds
In many articles published in Hindi and Urdu, the author
openly criticized the festival on various grounds like
tradition, nationalism and religion. For example, in an
article titled, ‘Valentine’s Day Represents Lechery Not
Love’, written by Yusuf Rampuri in Sahafat Urdu
newspaper, the reporter is openly hostile not only towards
the idea of celebrating Valentine’s Day but other festivities
and traditions which have started to influence the
“traditional Indian ways” and fashion them into something
more “western” by blindly following trends. He criticizes
those who celebrate the day on ethical and moral grounds.
The reporter states: “If we embrace anything virtuous, it of
course stands to reason, but to follow all even if it is
injurious and amoral to society is an eccentric folly.”
The author goes on to support his statements citing the
examples of clothing among men, especially women. The
first example he gives in the article is what he portrays as
the “blind imitation” of the West by women. He reminds
the reader of proud yesteryears of social values and
tradition, where Indian women once known for their shy
nature used to “cover their head with an extended part of the
cloth and kept their chest unexposed.” The author contrasts
this image of past modesty with the present fashion “not
meant to clothe their bodies” but to make them look “half
naked.” Pronouncing the women as “immoral” for aping
the West, the author engages in more youth bashing.
Regarding Valentine’s Day the author expresses his
objection with the manner in which this day is celebrated.
Rather than a day of expressing love, he objects that this day
has become an opportunity for couples to get together,
exchange pornographic cards and engage in physical
intimacy (read pre-marital intimacy), especially in public
spaces.
The author objects to parents sending their wards to
English-medium schools which have an apparently
unethical atmosphere. According to him, this leads to a
lifestyle which is based on “materialism and vile habits, in
order to gain momentary pleasures.” He considers such a
lifestyle as one marked by indulgence, experimentation,
drugs, premarital and extramarital sex and the loss of family
bonds. All this, according to the author, adversely affects
society and the nation.
The textual analysis brought up many similar articles in
Urdu newspapers. Such articles were very long and critical
in tone. They were highly opinionated and subjective. They
primarily highlighted the need to reject popular trends on
Valentine’s Day.
Debating what is love today and yesterday: Identifying
the true “Indian” version of love
Editorials and opinion pieces debated the changing nature
of love. One such example is an article in Hindi, “Love Had
to Change” by Sanjay Khati published in Navbharat Times.
The above article follows the trajectory of love, as it has
been experienced by the masses, beginning from the Vedic
times and comparing it with the Middle and Modern ages.
The author’s study focuses on the Indian subcontinent,
drawing a comparative analogy with the West, to highlight
how it is natural for love to evolve into a free flowing
expression of physical intimacy devoid of the extreme
emotional attachment contrary to what is popularly depicted
in the movies and literature today .The author refers to the
sculptures of Ajanta and Ellora temples, pointing out that
expression of romantic love is not something alien to Indian
culture but very naturally inherent in our sensibilities. The
author points out how social restrictions in India did not
allow for more expressiveness in love. He further traces
historical invasions against India and refers to Muslim
rulers. The latter part of the article explores how the
sensibilities are changing once again into a more
uninhibited expression of love as is prevalent in the West.
The article is a deeply personal article, highly subjective
with a prejudice against both the invaders from West Asia
and the “West” in general. The article basically implies that
what the Vedas have to say about love is what remains true
to Indian cultural values while the rest are impurities
brought in by the “West.”
In another article titled, “A Horrible Agenda Against the
Lovers” written by Sam Puniyani published in the Sahara
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newspaper gives a different perspective. The center stone of
the article is the idea from the Veda which says “Aano
Bhadra kratvo yanto vishwata" (let the best idea come onto
us from the whole universe). The article thus urges the
masses to accept all that is good, beautiful and true; and it
considers Valentine’s Day as yet another opportunity to
showcase beauty of love: “This day in fact reflects our love
to each other and those dear to us”.
The author is critical of those who are starkly intolerant of
this day. He says that these “self-appointed moral police”
have a “secret agenda,” that is, “an agenda against
liberalism, multi-cultural society and democratic values of
the country.” This very statement together with the title of
the article ‘A horrible agenda against the lovers’ establishes
the fact that the author is attempting to make Valentine’s
Day more acceptable. The author talks about this “inter
connectedness of traditions” through the latter part of the
article. The article gives us insight of how a common liberal
Indian perceives the nation in contemporary times, its
liberal democratic values being tried and tested and the
nation patiently answering back, holding on firmly never to
give in.
Security Issues and Valentine’s Day
The year 2009 witnessed incidents like the Mangalore pub
attack and the “Pink Chaddi” campaign, which brought the
issue of security to the forefront. Several articles
highlighted the security precautions being taken at
restaurants and other hang outs for couples. However, such
articles were rare in English newspapers and more common
in Urdu and Hindi dailies. For example, in an article titled,
“Tight Security in Bhopal to Protect Lovers on Valentine’s
Day,” published in “Sahara” talks about the precautions
being taken to keep a check on any untoward incident.
Another article titled, “Enjoy Valentine’s Day Fearlessly”
published in Sahara gives assurance to couples against any
protest or action by the Hindu organizations. The author
writes: “This year the couples need not care for any harm
from any Hindu organization. They may happily express
their love”. The article is short, with quotes given by the
police.
In another article titled, “Where Love Finds its Abode”,
published in Navbahrat Times, the reporter gives a sense of
assurance to couples despite the security issues. It states that
despite the security hassles, there are many places to be
explored. The article addresses the fear among couples
keeping in mind the past attacks by Shiv Sena and the
Bajrang Dal.
To conclude the results section, the textual analysis of
articles shows that while English newspaper go all out to
promote Valentine’s Day, Urdu newspapers are highly
critical of the day and portray it as a Western influence that
needs to be curbed. Meanwhile, Hindi newspapers seem to
take a cautious, middle-path stand where they mildly
approve of Valentine’s Day without promoting it.
Discussion
The aim of this study was to analyze media coverage of
Valentine’s Day in the Indian context where acts of violence
have occurred in relation to the celebrations on that day. The
study combined quantitative and qualitative methods to get
a more comprehensive picture of the media coverage of
Valentine’s Day festivities. Specifically, this project
attempted to compare coverage in English, Hindu and Urdu
newspapers of Valentine’s Day in the year 2010.
The main findings of this study show that while Englishlanguage newspapers promoted activities related to the
festival, Urdu-language newspapers were more critical of
the event. Meanwhile, Hindi-language newspapers
maintained a cautious approach – sometimes portraying a
positive picture and sometimes treading a more critical line.
Such findings highlight the important role played by a
newspaper’s readership in terms of its coverage. As results
show, the newspapers clearly attempted to cater to their
readers’ cultural and social values in their coverage. For
instance, English and Hindi dailies such as The Times of
India and Rashtriya Sahara cater to a wide spectrum of
readers and are not limited to a specific group. In contrast,
most Urdu dailies do not cover a wide cultural spectrum and
are addressing people with a particular set of social and
religious values. Thus, they tend to highlight a more
specific set of causes, concerns and interests relevant to
their own readership. However, it is important to also
remember that one cannot generalize the social and cultural
values of the entire readership.
Furthermore, results show that while English-language
newspapers covered Valentine’s Day as entertainment and
fun event, Hindi and Urdu newspapers gave it a more newsy
angle. A content analysis of the articles also highlighted the
tone of the articles showing that English-language
newspapers gave a more positive feel to the articles while
the others did not as much. In fact, the tone of the story in
Hindi newspapers is far more balanced in their approach as
in contrast to English and Urdu.
A close textual analysis of the articles reveal that
Valentine’s Day has more or less become a commercialized
festival. For businesspersons and entrepreneurs it is an
opportunity to reach out to the masses and crack out the best
deals this day. Most English-language newspapers have
taken the lead in this; with Hindi-language newspapers
following close behind.
The Urdu-language newspapers however have not shared
the enthusiasm of their English and Hindi counterparts, but
have chosen to be custodians of a culture loosing fast to the
modernity of the times.
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Another pertinent observation has been the immergence of
the English-language newspapers, breaking out from the
mold of a (once) conservative society and donning the role
of representing the new bold, non-conservative India. The
articles published in them included stories on intimacy,
romantic relationships and sexual behavior among the
youth. Both, the Hindi and Urdu print media have avoided
discussing such topics.
While we have a very pro Valentine’s Day approach
amongst the English print media; Urdu print media and to
some extent Hindi print media have taken a very different
stand towards the same event. Most of the Urdu articles
published and a few Hindi-language newspapers have
openly spoken against the festival on ethical, moral and
nationalistic grounds. Their approach has been a more
explorative kind, dissecting this relatively ‘new’
phenomenon of Valentine’s Day; juxtaposing it with the
nation’s past, comparing and contrasting and at times
finding similarities with it.
Keeping in mind the incidents like the Mangalore pub attack
and the “Pink Chaddi” campaign in the year 2009, the issues
of security came to the forefront. Several articles
highlighted the security precautions being taken at
restaurants and other hang outs for couples. However, such
articles were more common in Urdu and Hindi dailies and
were rare in English newspapers.
The more widely circulated English-language newspapers
such as the Times of India market themselves as upwardly
mobile, fast and trendy. The “news” they publish is thus
supposed to be popular, “attractively packaged” and most
importantly one that “sells.” The emphasis on selling is a
critical determinant as it influences what is published and
what is not. With serious challenges coming from television
and online news, things have become all the more
precarious for the print media as it struggles to maintain its
share in the market. Sales, thus has become an even more
decisive factor.
The content analysis part of this study illuminated the types
of sources used in the stories. Stories published in Englishlanguage newspapers often quoted the youth and
businessmen while stories published in Hindi newspapers
had far less businessmen. Interestingly, a majority of stories
in Urdu did not have any sources or quotes. Those Urdulanguage stories that carried sources often carried quotes of
political and religious leaders. Differences in the type of
sources used show how a story is covered from different
perspectives. Several stories published in Urdu and
English-language newspapers also critical of the
commercial aspects of the festival.
As Brosius (2010) argues in her study titled “Contesting
Emotions. Ritualizing Romantic Love in Neoliberal Urban
India”, there exist a multitude of opinions on Valentine’s
Day in this country. Supporters and opponents of
Valentine’s Day have their own personal agendas and
interests in mind. Their agendas are reflected by the
different types of media they use to promote their idea to a
larger population. Here the supposedly “objective” print
media play an important role in portraying Valentine’s Day
in different ways.
This study has explored how newspapers in different
languages portray Valentine’s Day differently in Indian
society. While English-language newspapers promote
Valentine’s Day, Urdu and even Hindi newspapers (to an
extent) portray it as an attack on Indian traditions and
culture. Some may also attribute the critical nature of
coverage in Urdu newspapers as adherence to religious
values. As observed, Urdu newspapers often portrayed
Valentine’ Day as antithetical to Muslim religious values.
However in Hindi newspapers, several stories were more
balanced in their approach, although several articles also
seemed to tow values espoused by Hindu political parties.
Meanwhile, English language newspapers promoted the
festival and advertised places to go out and have fun on that
day.
An important point to note here is the role played by
language in terms of the socio-cultural values it espouses.
Indian newspapers published in different languages
displayed different objectives and implications. One thus
observes that religion, culture, tradition and sexual behavior
are closed intertwined. Language plays an important role in
all of them. They are interdependent and layered. In case of
Valentine’s Day in Indian context, issue like tolerance,
religion, politics, business, cultural diversity and sexual
behavior come hand in hand. Modernity and Valentine’s
Day intersect with one another. For those who consider the
festival as “western”, also consider it as “modern” and
hence “not right”. There are many social-cultural tensions
that are reflected through different newspapers. The
newspapers choose these tools according to their readership
requirements. a
Limitations and Recommendations
This study suffers a few limitations. One was the
accessibility and availability of articles, especially those
published in Urdu and Hindi. Hindi and Urdu-language
articles were not available online unlike the English articles.
Secondly, the nine newspapers that have been chosen for
the research do not fall in the category of top 3 newspapers
according to Indian Readership Survey. The reason is the
lack of availability and accessibility of those newspapers.
However, the newspapers that have been chosen do fall in
the top ten newspapers, thus giving a platform for
comparison and contrast. A second limitation is the small
sample size, especially of Urdu-language articles. The
reason for choosing 9 newspapers was to have a good
sample size so that generalizations and conclusions can be
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T. Siddiqui (2016) Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 3, Issue-3: 171-187
drawn. However, despite including 9 newspapers in the
sample, the Urdu-language articles remained small. One of
the obvious reasons is the fact that very few articles were
published on Valentine’s Day. The second reason is the
choice of newspapers. Due to unavailability of articles,
vernacular and regional newspapers were used in my
sample size. However this limitation also turned in favor of
the research as it drew a sharp comparison between the local
press and the national dailies.
Further, the above-mentioned limitations can serve as a
direction for future research. A similar study in future may
have a broader approach. The focus may be on other
mediums like television, radio and online. An overall study
of these mediums including the print media would give
better generalization and concrete results. Another thing
that may be considered in future research is the interview
the journalists who write these articles. Secondly, studying
more vernacular print media so as to witness the local
scenario and the way it perceives a global phenomenon,
where commerce, language and culture play an important
role.
Conclusion
This research intended to analyze the quality and character
of print media coverage of Valentine’s Day in the Indian
context. A close analysis of the articles revealed that
popular English and Hindi newspapers have stayed clear
from critiquing the “event” in any way. They have rather
treated this day as a commercial festival with
businesspeople, entrepreneurs and popular media
promoting it fully aware of the promising business
opportunity this day holds. In marked contrast to this,
Valentine’s Day has largely been perceived unfavorably by
the Urdu print media. Not following the trend set by the
popular English and Hindi newspapers, the Urdu print
media have given a more reserved and conservative
response adhering more closely to the social, cultural and
religious values of their readership. English print media on
the other hand has responded extremely positively to
Valentine’s Day. They have positioned them selves as
promoters of Valentine’s Day to leverage upon its full
marketing potentiality.
Another important find has been the bold and open coverage
of Valentine’s Day by the English print media. It’s marked
with explicitness and openness on romantic relationships,
intimacy and sexual behavior; something which is not
observed in either of the indigenous language newspapers.
Hindi and Urdu-language newspapers have maintained their
distance from such issues.
Urdu newspapers though have been most opinionated
critiquing Valentine’s Day repeatedly across all their
newspapers whereas this approach to Valentines Day
surfaces in the Hindi newspapers to a limited extent.
Disapproval, wherever apparent, is based on ethical, moral,
religious and nationalistic grounds. Editorials and opinion
pieces in these indigenous language newspapers frequently
debated the changing nature of love in this cross cultural
milieu.
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T. Siddiqui (2016) Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 3, Issue-3: 171-187
Appendix
Some illustrations of Valentine’s Day published in various sources
A.
(Source: Wikipedia.com)
C.
(Source: Defence.pk.com)
B.
D.
(Source: newshopper.sulekha.com)
(Source: newshopper.sulekha.com)
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